Switched on Pop - Into It: Song of Summer 2022

Episode Date: September 6, 2022

Who had the song of the summer? Sam Sanders chats with Switched on Pop's Charlie Harding and Reanna Cruz about whose song (and album) is in the running: Beyoncé, Bad Bunny, Lizzo, or Kate Bush?  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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So we're sharing a recent conversation of Sam Sanders show on Vulture called Into It. Rihanna and I spoke with Sam about the candidates for Song of Summer, a superlative that maybe shouldn't even exist anymore. Take a listen. Let us know which song, if any, you think, deserves the title. And don't forget to subscribe to Intuit. Without further ado, here's Sam Sanders on Into It. Summer is basically over, which means it is perhaps my second favorite time of year.

That time of year, a lot of people with too much time on their hands, debate with intensity, Which song is the song of the summer? I love these debates so much. And in my opinion, they've gotten even more heated because now, more than ever, it is really difficult to make a definitive pick. So with that, let's debate. I brought on two of my distinguished vulture colleagues

to hash things out. I'm Rihanna Cruz. I produce Switched on Pop. I'm Charlie Harding. I also produce Switched on Pop. It's a show about the making and meaning of popular music. There we go. So I could think of no two better people to ask the central question of my summer, which is, what is the song of the summer if there even is one? How dare you ask, Sam? I thought we killed the song of summer years ago.

I don't necessarily think it's that easy, Sam. Tell me more. Yeah, I feel like in 2022, my personal stance is that the song of the summer isn't necessarily the way we used to. know the song of the summer because I feel like the song of the summer used to be a cultural moment that everybody sort of rallied behind. Like get lucky was the song of the summer the year it came out. Yeah, yeah. I don't really like feel that for 2022 because the way we listen to music is so decentralized right now. Nobody really listens to radio as much as they used to. TikTok brings a million different songs in 15 second clips every other week.

Like there's so many options right now. The song of the summer that we used to know it as doesn't necessarily exist. Rihanna's right, but it's definitely Break My Soul by Beyonce. So true. I have to begrudgingly admit that if I'm looking at the metrics, that matter, TikTok ubiquity, radio airplay, performance on the charts. pound for pound by the numbers, I think it has to be,

and I hate to say this, I think it has to be Lizzo's, it's about damn time. Wow, that would have been one of my top. I mean, am I wrong to say that? It's everywhere. I mean, it is the get lucky of this season

because it does feel like it's a continuation of Deaf Punk's record random access memories with all of the disco sheen, the slap bass, you know, the just on the nose, references to past music. Lizzo says,

been feeling down and under pressure. I'm way too fine to be distressed under pressure. Of course, the McBowie, Queen. I like it. It's fun. It's got flutes. It's got bells. It's got good harmonies.

So when I first heard it, I hated it because I said immediately, well, the Lizzo song, Juice, is a better version of this song. And it sounds like it's about damn time was cooked up in a lab. to be a number one Lizzo hit. It just feels like it was created for TikTok dancing and virality, and it was created to win a contest of Song of the Summer. That may be true, but I have to say that fast food is made to be scrumptious, and even if this is super produced, it's doing it for me.

It's fun. I don't know. I feel like it's a grower for sure. I used to be of the camp that Lizzo makes Old Navy commercial music. I don't know if you've ever heard that, but that's something that, like, I think is really, really accurate. So initially I was very, I think, like, opposed to this song. But it's grown on me over time.

I think it continues a sort of trend that we're seeing between Beyonce and Lizzo of this disco sort of vibe coming back to the top of the charts. These days, there's a renewed interest in older music. Personally, like one of my songs of the summer, if not my pick for de facto song of the summer is running up that hill. Ah, Kate Bush. Okay, we're going to have to pause right there and really unpack that because I believe you are the youngest person in this chat right now. I am.

And that song might be older than you? Oh, absolutely. Yeah, but Rihanna's also the only person in this chat room with a Kate Bush tattoo right now. This is true. What? Tell me all about all of this. I am a Kate Bush Stan. I am currently sitting under a vintage Hounds of Love poster.

I have a tattoo on my arm that says cloud busting, which is the fifth track off of Hounds of Love and my favorite Kate Bush song. Like running up that hill is not the song of the summer because I'm Kate Bush die hard. I'm saying that because I feel like it's genuinely true and accurate. Yeah, like it came into the zeitgeist this summer because of that song's feature in the newest season

of the Netflix hit Stranger Things. Right, right. And I don't watch Stranger Things. So I was just like, oh, cool, all of this renewed interest in Kate Bush, so funny to me. But I've actively been hearing it everywhere. I think it's one of the only songs this year, maybe even alongside Break My Soul, to capture

the summer zeitgeist in a way that is so ubiquitous, right? Like, it's on TikTok, it's out of car speakers, it's at the club, everybody is like remixing it, putting their spin on it. What club did you hear running up that hill? Sam, I go to gay clubs. So do I. I'm going to the wrong gay clubs. I've been hearing it everywhere.

Sam, you know how there are countless artists like your Taylor Swift's of the World that leave Easter eggs for us to discover their song as part of a long marketing release? I have this conspiracy theory idea that perhaps stranger things has been seating our interest in Kate Bush since it landed and has been Netflix's biggest show because we actually spoke with Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein who composed the music for that show, who specifically cite Kate Bush as a significant influence to their sound. So it's almost like the soundtrack to that show, which is wildly popular,

has been just like slowly revealing to us all of these 80s synthesizers and beautiful melodies and just like a little bit of melancholy. I think Kate Bush has been with us for the last many years and we just didn't know it. and now she's fully arrived again. I like the Kate Bush plot more than I like the actual plot of Stranger Things. Me as well. I do love these instances of classic songs being rediscovered by new groups of young people every five or six years. I think the same thing happens every few years with Fleetwood Mac's dreams.

And every few years, I see some viral video of some young kids hearing it for the first time and their minds are blown. And it makes me so happy every time I see it. And to see it happen with Kate Bush's song as well, I'm like, I'm constantly here for this. And I hope in this era of streaming and whatever music is in right now that this happens all the time. Like, I can't wait for the kids to like discover Rush. I don't know. What's next? Please.

Sam, you're going to have to come back on Switch on Pop for a dedicated episode about Rush. You are. You contain multitude, Sam. I contain multitudes. All right. So far I'm hearing that there are arguments to be made for Lizzo having the song of the summer and Kate Bush having the song of the summer. But we've alluded to a third contender and haven't truly debated it.

It is Beyonce's Break My Soul. And I'm going to go out on a limb here and say, as perhaps the world's biggest Beyonce fan and a lover of her latest album Renaissance, I'm going to say Break My Soul is not a lot. the song of the summer because pound for pound it is not an outstanding Beyonce single. Wow. I know. Fight me. It's full of energy, but it feels very repetitive and it feels like it's not getting as strange as the rest of Renaissance does.

And I don't know. I just feel like when I think of lead singles from Beyonce albums, this is not top five for me. Yeah, I'm slowly backing away like Homer Simpson into the bush. Into the Kate Bush. The Kate Bush. I'm going to have to close a loop on Beyonce so I don't get too much hate mail and say this. Part of why Beyonce's Break My Soul

is not the song of the summer is because whenever I hear Break My Soul on the radio, all I want to go do is go play heated or go play Pure Honey or go play Alien Superstar. I just think it's like a strange first showcase for an album that is so rich. That said, y'all know I love Beyonce.

So don't even come at me. listeners in my mentions. Sam, I get it though. I think that Renaissance focuses its attention on being an album rather than the collection of songs. I don't really see a specific single pulling away from the pack, even though Break My Soul was the single. Like, I think the piece functions better in the context of an album. Similarly, I really enjoy the Bad Bunny record and I would call it the album of the summer. Okay, what's it called? Unverano Sinti.

What do you like about it? I enjoy it because a certain quality of the song of the summer that I always look for is a certain like Genesequois tropical vibes and like summer vibes. And you could hear it on the beach. You could hear it on a hot day out of speakers. Wherever that applies is like the intersection of that is the song of the summer. And that's what I find in Bad Bunny. Like I love it.

I've been listening to it everywhere. And I think it's similar to Renaissance where you talk to everybody and they have a different favorite track off of it. But everybody's heard the bad bunny and everybody sort of rallies behind that being the soundtrack of the past few months. Like I think they're very similar. Rihanna is spot on in that there are multiple songs over 400 million plays on Spotify off that record. Wow. Wow. Yeah.

It's crazy. Four. Five. Like there's a lot of songs that are crushing it on that album. Before we do a little informal vote amongst the three of us to crown a song of the summer, I want to ask you both if there are any other contenders that we should consider? This might be out of left field, but the biggest song in K-pop right now is New Jeans' attention. Is this amazing throwback R&B song that I'm really loving?

I would put that in the mix because that's a huge global hit. I also would say that Harry Styles was probably pretty sad that we're not talking about as it was. As it was actually good. It's a great song. Is it the summer vibe that you're feeling? I don't know. You know it's not the same as it. It was number one on the go board charts.

I want to say for like eight weeks. It was all over for a while. He makes music for upscale restaurants that have never. too loud. And that is my vibe right now in my life. I love it. I dig it. So, yeah, so let's call him a contender for as it was. All right, so then if those are

our contenders, Lizzo with It's About Damn Time, Beyonce with Break My Soul, all a bad bunny, Kate Bush running up that hill, and Harry Styles as it was. If y'all had to pick right now one artist, one song, four song of the summer,

even though I know you don't want to do that. If you had to pick which of those five is it? I'm off to get a Kate Bush tattoo. Wow. Wow. Okay. I think I got to go bad bunny, honestly. Maybe it's just the little Puerto Rican to me, but I have to. It really embodies the summer for me. I'm going to begrudgingly give it to Lizzo for its about damn time.

She is making music that feels pretty ephemeral right now. It is very girl boss kids'bop energy. But it worked. Look what we did. We've determined that there is no song of summer. We all contain multitudes. We all contain multitudes. It's funny, though. I've been thinking about how, like, that moment at which we could have diagnosed a song of the summer, that moment's over.

In the same way that we've lost a monoculture and TV, like, there's too much shit to watch and no one's in charge and nothing really stands out. It's really hard to do that. I feel like it's the same way in music. Streaming has opened up so much. infinite possibility, it's really hard to see anything that grabs everyone's attention all the time. So if that is a reality and the era of the song of the summer is moving further and further behind us, what takes its place? Playlist of the summer? Festival of the summer? Should of the summer just be retired? Best algorithmic playlist of the summer sounds like probably the most of the now kind of thing that it could be.

I think, like, as evidenced by The Bad Bunny, as evidenced by Renaissance, we are moving towards album of the summer because I think an album can take up the cultural moment in a way that a single song can't necessarily do anymore. Yeah. And I'm glad about that because it felt like for a long time, streaming was killing the album. You know, album cells have been down astronomically for years now, but to see the way that the culture has seemed to latch on to Renaissance and to be. Bad Bunny, it gives me hope. Like, I'm talking to friends and I'm doing it myself. Like, I'm playing

the album in its entirety as the artist intended. And had you asked me two or three years ago if I would ever be doing that again, I would have said no, but thank the Lord for Beyonce and Bad Bunny because they are bringing albums back. I like that. I love nerd and out about music, especially with two great colleagues like y'all. I appreciate it. Thank you, Sam. Great fun. Thank you, Sam.

All righty. Bye. Thanks again to Charlie Harding and Rihanna Cruz. Go check out the very good music podcast. It's called Switched on Pop. And please do not cancel me for not loving break my soul. Y'all know I love Beyonce. You know that, okay?

So just let it be. Let it be. All right, Intuit is hosted by me, Sam Sanders.